Northwich Piña Colada Festival 🍍

Now that we've traveled as far up the River Weaver as possible we are going to take a blogging break. We'll be pootling back and forth up and down the river over the next month and will only post if there is something particularly interesting. Which brings us on to Northwich's Piña Colada Festival!

In 2021 it came to light that Rupert Holmes, the person who wrote and sung 'Escape (the Piña Colada song)' was born in Northwich. Ever since then the town has been celebrating this claim to fame with a summer festival. We knew that Northwich was a vibrant town that put a lot of effort into attracting people and trade to its streets. This was the best example of these efforts.

The fun began at midday and ran until 6pm. The place was packed with people wearing Hawaiian shirts, tropical print dresses and flower leis of different colours. It seemed that every high street business had done something special. Shop fronts, pubs and cafés were decorated with pineapples, flowers and bunting. Outdoor tables served freshly made piña coladas; each with it's own twist. One place even served them up in hollowed out pineapples!

The cocktails were expensive but there were a whole load of free activities. Live music blasted from stages at both ends of town and/simple fairground stalls including 'hook a flamingo' and a coconut shy were popular with the kids. Several tonnes of sand donated by a local construction firm was laid out as an urban beach. This kept the little ones happy as their parents put their feet up and watched on from deckchairs. A community of knitters and crocheters had been exceptionally busy; handmade pineapples and flowers decorated post boxes, bollards and railings, lending a Hawaiian feel to Northwich (albeit a woolly one!)

Piña Coladas are normally too sweet for Will but he immersed himself in the spirit of the celebration and sampled a few, while Vicky enjoyed a virgin version. There was such a good feel to the day; everyone seemed happy and up for some fun. Later on Will caught the final parade of drummers, dancers in rainbow tutus and human butterflies. It was a day we'll remember with a smile on our faces!

The pontoon moorings outside the Odeon were full but we moored a little way upriver alongside a stretch of grass, separated from a private residents' area by railings and a concrete wall. It was so much better for the furries than the pontoon and we spent the afternoons outside in the shade of the wall. We knew Heidi the Pirate (a YouTube vlogger we've followed for years) was on the Weaver so we were happy but not surprised when she moored along from us with her little French Bulldog rescue Bonnie. In keeping with her pirate persona Heidi likes a nip of rum so she couldn't possibly have passed up a visit to a festival all about a rum based cocktail! Her followers often gift interesting bottles of rum to her, which she features on her videos. Will had picked up some alcohol free Captain Morgan rum, which she jokingly told him he could keep! It's always a pleasure when you meet someone you enjoy watching and they are just the same genuine person as they present online. Leo and Tiger enjoyed playing a little with Bonnie, who Heidi is trying to socialise. She has recently bought a 'new to her' boat that she's renamed 'The Jolly Roger' and had a great painting of her 'first mate' Bonnie done on the side.もっと詳しく